Chapter 1048 - 866: Taking Action (Part 2)

The Duke stood still, slightly turned his head, and calmly looked at the giant beast in front of him, which was a head taller than himself.

The leader monster stared at him for a while, then suddenly raised its forehooves and charged at the Duke with a speed disproportionate to its massive size.

The ground trembled slightly under its sprint, and the ordinary demons behind it shivered at its charge but dared not follow.

The Duke remained still until the spiked forehooves were about to hit his head, then he sidestepped and retreated half a step back to the left.

The spikes grazed his clothes and smashed into the ground, leaving a basin-sized crater in the mud.

The leader monster missed and immediately swung its head to bite the Duke, but he sidestepped again, effortlessly avoiding its fangs.

His movements were minimal; each dodge precisely exploited the opponent’s attack blind spots. To the villagers watching from the fence, the outsider seemed barely to move, yet the giant beast couldn’t touch him no matter how hard it tried.

After several misses, the leader monster’s breathing became heavy, and the calm assessment in its dark red pupils was gradually replaced by rising agitation.

It suddenly stood upright, its forehooves’ bone spikes resembling two massive warhammers pounding down on the Duke.

This time, the Duke didn’t dodge. He stepped forward with his right foot, hips and waist building power, fingers curling as his knuckles emitted a faint pop as they tightened.

Then, he executed a simple force trajectory: grounding his right foot, rotating his waist, aligning his shoulder, and extending his arm.

This punch, free of any energy enhancement, was purely the concentrated explosion of physical power, landing precisely on the leader monster’s soft depression between its jawbone and throat bone devoid of scale armor.

A Level 3 Body punch was like a siege hammer crashing against a dirt wall.

The sound of bone shattering exploded in the wilderness, the massive body of the Level 1 Peak Demon hit by an invisible giant hammer from below, its head suddenly jolting up, jawbone shattered into dozens of fragments by the penetrating punch force, throat bone directly punctured.

Its body momentarily froze in mid-air, then collapsed like a stone tower with its foundation removed, crashing sideways onto the ground, dark red blood gushing from the shattered jaw and throat, forming a rapidly expanding dark puddle.

Several dark red eyes still turned slightly, but their brightness waned, finally solidifying into dull gray stones.

There was a momentary silence in the wilderness, then the demon horde completely collapsed.

Without a leader, the remaining demons abandoned any considerations, frantically fleeing toward the depths of the forest, some slower ones knocked over and hurriedly scrambling to continue running, some even crashing directly into tree trunks.

Their howls of distress during escape trailed long in the night wind, starkly contrasting the menacing aura they exuded upon charging out. The Duke stood still, shaking off the blood on his hand, not pursuing.

He turned and walked to the fence below, looking up to wave at the villagers above, still in a daze.

"All solved."

Uncle Tie was the first to walk down from the fence.

Unlike usual, he didn’t stride forward but first held onto the fence’s edge for a moment, like confirming whether his legs could walk properly.

The short axe he usually kept handy was casually leaned against the inside of the fence, forgotten.

He stopped a few steps away from the Duke, looked down at the leader monster’s shattered jaw on the ground, then looked up at the Duke’s still calm face, lips moving a few times but ultimately managing only a hoarse sentence: "What... what exactly are you?"

The Duke wiped his hand casually with his blood-stained sleeve, tone flat: "A passing traveler."

Uncle Tie didn’t press further; it wasn’t that he didn’t want to ask but that he had lived long enough to know how to live a little longer.

He stepped back, giving the Duke a path, unconsciously exhibiting a form of respect even he hadn’t realized.

Behind him, the old village chief walked over, supported by Ella tightly holding his arm.

The elder stopped before the leader monster’s corpse, his cloudy old eyes scanning the massive body taller than himself under the moonlight, then over the Duke’s shoulder where the monster’s fangs had torn his clothing, before silently bowing slightly and speaking in a local dialect the Duke hadn’t learned.

It was a very old saying, meaning "May the wheats always bow toward your direction."

Ella explained softly from the side that this was the most solemn gesture of gratitude from Osseron’s farmers toward their benefactors.

The Duke returned the gesture earnestly, without speaking.

The village chief then cautiously asked how the Duke wished to handle the demon corpses, but the Duke simply gestured, indicating he didn’t need them and they were free to handle them.

He had used Spiritual Power to scan them earlier; these demons, less than Level 1, held no value to him.

The Level 1 Demon’s insides also held nothing of worth, at least to him.

At this stage, Level 1 Life materials hardly held much value anymore.

The Duke learned from the village chief that, theoretically, these things belonged to the Lord.

Even if the Duke killed them, he couldn’t keep them.

The village chief feared the powerful outsider might unknowingly anger the Lord, more importantly, if the villagers couldn’t preserve these demon corpses, the entire village could face execution by the Lord.

Fortunately, the Duke had no interest in these demons, rendering the villagers’ concerns unnecessary.

The old village chief communicated seriously with the Duke, confirming he didn’t need the demons.

Only then did he straighten up, turning to the fence direction, calmly issuing orders.

Uncle Tie, accompanied by several strong villagers, approached the demons that the Duke had punched to death, expertly squatting down and drawing short knives from their belts to begin extracting the demons’ eyes.

In the moonlight, the dark red eyeballs emitted a cold glow as villagers carefully carved them out of the sockets, placing them into pottery jars lined with dry grass.

Their actions were skillful, clearly not the first time doing this. A young villager whispered to the person beside him while cutting, talking about how last time when the Lord’s men came to collect, several eyeballs lacked quality and they lost a few copper coins; this time, they should select the best ones to prepare first.

In such situations, the Lord usually didn’t fully seize everything, granting some coins or food as compensation.

The Duke stood by watching for a while, then inquired about these demons and the Lord.

Uncle Tie didn’t look up, continuing to steadily extract the eyeballs with his knife.

He said on Count Cadwell’s territory, all demons were the Earl’s property; even if villagers killed them, they must report, else if discovered, it’d be accused of embezzling Lord’s property, facing at least a whipping or at worst execution.

Fortunately, the Lord had no interest in ordinary demon meat, usually allowing villagers to keep it, so they always divided the meat post-processing, extracting the eyes to be kept separately and submitted when the Lord’s tax-collecting team arrived.

As for why the eyes were valuable, Uncle Tie said they didn’t know, only that the Earl had been extensively purchasing these things.

The old village chief walked to the leader monster, remaining silent for a long time.

This nearly two-meter-tall beast, even dead, continued to emit a pressure instinctively making one want to retreat.

Its several eyeballs were larger than ordinary demons’, and in the moonlight, exuded a deep dark red glow, even having lost its Life Force, seemingly containing a faint remaining glow within.

The elder squatted down, inspecting the leader monster’s eyes carefully, his rough fingers hovering above the eyes, never truly touching, like examining an object he was unsure whether to handle.